TOKYO: The euro rebounded against the dollar and yen in Asia on Friday after slipping against the greenback in New York as eurozone finance ministers prepare for high-level debt talks.
The euro bought $1.3347 and 109.54 yen in Tokyo trade, compared with $1.3301 and 109.64 yen in New York.
The dollar edged down to 82.04 yen from 82.42 yen in New York, temporarily falling below 82 yen in earlier trade.
Finance ministers from the 17-nation currency bloc meet on Friday and Saturday in Copenhagen to discuss expanding the region's debt firewall by combining the European Financial Stability Facility, used to rescue Portugal, Ireland and Greece, with the permanent European Stability Mechanism.
The move would temporarily raise the size of the rescue mechanism to 940 billion euros, seen as necessary to stem market volatility tied to the eurozone's fiscal woes.
But member countries are divided over how much should be laid aside, with France and the European Commission eyeing near to a trillion euros while Germany, Europe's top economy and paymaster, remains much more cautious.
Europe's partners from Washington to Tokyo and including groups such as the International Monetary Fund want to see the bloc ring-fenced as effectively as possible against a new crisis that would affect the world economy.
The euro was higher on some buyback following falls in New York on Thursday, but "many remain sceptical over the eurozone's economic outlook," Teppei Ino, senior analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, told Dow Jones Newswires. "They won't buy the euro aggressively," he said.
Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo, said: "The euro is likely to be bought further if (the bailout fund) is increased."
The eurozone meeting comes amid violence in Spain as the government prepared to unveil more austerity measures to tackle a spiralling budget deficit in the face of a general strike.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters swamped Spain's streets on Thursday to back a general strike, marred by clashes in Barcelona.
The dollar eased to Sg$1.2570 from Sg$1.2575 on Thursday, to Tw$29.52 from Tw$29.56, and to 1,135.35 South Korean won from 1,137.20 won.
The greenback held steady at 42.99 Philippine pesos while it firmed to 30.86 Thai baht from 30.84 baht. It was down at 9,187.00 Indonesian rupiah from 9,196.00 rupiah.
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